AMD's K6
line has been compared to Intel's Pentium II, but in reality it is somewhere in the middle of Pentium with MMX and Pentium II performance. The newest K6s support the 100MHz memory bus. AMD kept K6 prices 25% below comparably performing Intel chips. The K6 is the first AMD chip to offer MMX support, and the K6 is better at 3D and floating point operations than the Cyrix 6x86, but still comes up short when compared MHz for MHz with the Pentium II.
Friday, March 2, 2007
AMD - Athlon (K7 / Athlon Professional)
Athlon in standard plastic shell - Slot A
AMD's Athlon uses a Slot A architecture that is physically compatible with Intel's Slot 1, but electrically compatible with the DEC's EV-6 Alpha bus, instead of Intel's closed P6 bus architecture. The EV-6 bus has the potential to run at up to 400MHz, starting at 200MHz initially (100MHz * 2).
The Athlon features 19 new 3D instructions with a 128-bit pipeline, backwards compatible with the 3DNow! instructions, but faster, to give Intel's SSE a run for the money.
The K7 will feature chipsets that support SMP or Symmetric Multi-Processing, but not until mid-2001. The K7 will be the first non-Intel x86 chip to be used in systems with more than one processor in a system. Dual processing systems will be first, and then 4 and 8 processor systems as well. This will be significant in the workstation and server market. The K6 architecture is capable of multiprocessing as well, but we will never see a SMP chipset available for it.
All standard Athlons ship with 512K of off-chip L2 cache running at either 1/2, 2/5 or 1/3 processor speed.
The Athlon was initially manufactured on a .25 micron process (C Athlons), but then were moved quickly to a .18 micron process (A Athlons). A and C Athlons can be told apart by looking for an A or C to the right of the part number listed on the plastic shell surrounding them. All Athlons at 750MHz and above are manufactured on a .18 micron process. There were some .25 micron 750MHz Athlons manufactured, but they never made it to market.
The Athlon features 3 integer, 3 floating point and 3 address calculation pipelines. The integer pipelines are 10-stage and the floating point pipelines are 15-stage.
As for benchmarks, so far the K7 600 with 1/2 speed L2 cache is clocking in at around 28 Specint95 and 24 Specfp95. Check Spec.org for other scores. You may also want to check out the Duron, and Thunderbird tables for additional insight into AMD's Athlon line of processors.
Athlon in standard plastic shell - Slot A
AMD's Athlon uses a Slot A architecture that is physically compatible with Intel's Slot 1, but electrically compatible with the DEC's EV-6 Alpha bus, instead of Intel's closed P6 bus architecture. The EV-6 bus has the potential to run at up to 400MHz, starting at 200MHz initially (100MHz * 2).
The Athlon features 19 new 3D instructions with a 128-bit pipeline, backwards compatible with the 3DNow! instructions, but faster, to give Intel's SSE a run for the money.
The K7 will feature chipsets that support SMP or Symmetric Multi-Processing, but not until mid-2001. The K7 will be the first non-Intel x86 chip to be used in systems with more than one processor in a system. Dual processing systems will be first, and then 4 and 8 processor systems as well. This will be significant in the workstation and server market. The K6 architecture is capable of multiprocessing as well, but we will never see a SMP chipset available for it.
All standard Athlons ship with 512K of off-chip L2 cache running at either 1/2, 2/5 or 1/3 processor speed.
The Athlon was initially manufactured on a .25 micron process (C Athlons), but then were moved quickly to a .18 micron process (A Athlons). A and C Athlons can be told apart by looking for an A or C to the right of the part number listed on the plastic shell surrounding them. All Athlons at 750MHz and above are manufactured on a .18 micron process. There were some .25 micron 750MHz Athlons manufactured, but they never made it to market.
The Athlon features 3 integer, 3 floating point and 3 address calculation pipelines. The integer pipelines are 10-stage and the floating point pipelines are 15-stage.
As for benchmarks, so far the K7 600 with 1/2 speed L2 cache is clocking in at around 28 Specint95 and 24 Specfp95. Check Spec.org for other scores. You may also want to check out the Duron, and Thunderbird tables for additional insight into AMD's Athlon line of processors.
The AMD Athlon™ 64 processor has won the Microprocessor
SUNNYVALE, CA -- February 17, 2003 --The AMD Athlon™ 64 processor has won the Microprocessor Report Analysts’ Choice for Best PC Processor at the prestigious Microprocessor Report’s Analysts’ Choice Awards 2002. For the desktop and mobile markets, the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor competed for the award with both Intel’s Pentium® 4 and Pentium M processors. The AMD Athlon 64 processor, designed to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications, is planned to launch in September 2003.
“AMD is honored to receive this award from Microprocessor Report,” said Rob Herb, executive vice president, chief sales and marketing officer for AMD. “We believe the future of computing, from high-end servers to mainstream desktop and notebook PCs, will be based on pervasive 64-bit computing. This award further validates AMD’s leadership position in the 64-bit evolution.”
“We feel that AMD’s unique approach to 64-bit computing will set the standard for the PC industry for the next decade,” said Kevin Krewell, senior analyst, InStat/MDR. “In selecting the winner for this award, we sought to recognize the company that drove industry innovation for PC processor technology.”
The Microprocessor Report Analyst’s Choice Award is the first award the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor has received. Award recipients are selected based on an extensive process by the Microprocessor Report analysts. The analyst team not only reviewed products introduced during the course of 2002, but looked at emerging microprocessor technology that was available in sample quantities. This win marks the third time the AMD Athlon family of products has been recognized for its processor technology by Microprocessor Report.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor’s 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of approximately $2.7 billion in 2002. (NYSE: AMD).
Cautionary Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations, including the possibility that the company may not achieve its current product introduction schedule for the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Other product and company names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
“AMD is honored to receive this award from Microprocessor Report,” said Rob Herb, executive vice president, chief sales and marketing officer for AMD. “We believe the future of computing, from high-end servers to mainstream desktop and notebook PCs, will be based on pervasive 64-bit computing. This award further validates AMD’s leadership position in the 64-bit evolution.”
“We feel that AMD’s unique approach to 64-bit computing will set the standard for the PC industry for the next decade,” said Kevin Krewell, senior analyst, InStat/MDR. “In selecting the winner for this award, we sought to recognize the company that drove industry innovation for PC processor technology.”
The Microprocessor Report Analyst’s Choice Award is the first award the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor has received. Award recipients are selected based on an extensive process by the Microprocessor Report analysts. The analyst team not only reviewed products introduced during the course of 2002, but looked at emerging microprocessor technology that was available in sample quantities. This win marks the third time the AMD Athlon family of products has been recognized for its processor technology by Microprocessor Report.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor’s 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of approximately $2.7 billion in 2002. (NYSE: AMD).
Cautionary Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations, including the possibility that the company may not achieve its current product introduction schedule for the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Other product and company names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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